by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886)
Not knowing when the Dawn will come
Language: English
Not knowing when the Dawn will come, I open every Door, Or has it Feathers, like a Bird, Or Billows, like a Shore –
About the headline (FAQ)
Confirmed with Poems by Emily Dickinson. Third Series, ed by Mabel Loomis Todd, Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1896. Note: in this edition, the nouns are not capitalized and there is a question-mark at the end of the poem instead of an em-dash. Nemtsov uses the later version shown above.
Text Authorship:
- by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), "Dawn", appears in Poems: Third Series, in 3. Nature, no. 7 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Sarah Nemtsov (b. 1980), no title, 2007, first performed 2007 [ mezzo-soprano and piano ], from For a Frontier, no. 2, Berlin : Edition Nova Vita [sung text checked 1 time]
Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Joost van der Linden [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website: 2025-11-14
Line count: 4
Word count: 24